Ali over at Skeins Her Way is having a summer planning contest. I’m much better at completing things with a deadline, so here goes:

My Summer Knitting Plans*

1. Hogwarts Socks
2. Mistake rib socks for my husband
3. Sockamania socks – one pair a month
4. At least one thing for charity
5. At least one Christmas present
6. At least one swatch for the Walker Treasury Project.

* I reserve the right to call any month summer, so long as the temperature stays over 65º. I figure this will give me summer at least until mid-October. Maybe I’ll actually finish the list.

The neighborhood squirrels want to join in.

Squirrels’ Summer Plans:

1. Get fat.

I would classify this as a feeder mounting problem. The feeder was full before the long weekend. The birds are still coming, and the neighboorhood squirrels look uncommonly smug. The oak tree is taking this moment to say, “Ow.” Fear not, my dear oak, we shall prevail!

Well, after countless hours of searching, wracking my brain, yarn buying and dyeing*, and charting, what have I to show for myself? It’s going to look nothing like I originally intended. But, hopefully, it will make my giftee happy.

This is my first real swap, and I’m having a ball!

* The color in this picture is horribly off.

If you’re ever in the mood to torture the neighborhood squirrels, I highly recommend one of these feeders. I put this little gem up in our yard on Sunday and spent the rest of the afternoon keeping score. At the end of the day, the tally was Feeder: 3, Highly irritated squirrel: 0. You can’t tell from the picture, but when the squirrel puts any weight on the perch, the cage on the outside fo the feeder lowers, and those pretty leaves cover up the access points for the bird seed. Our leaves are a bit chewed now (did I mention the squirrel was irritated?) but still functional.

Here’s my first baby burp cloth from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book…

Started: 6 May 2007 Finished: 13 May 2007 Pattern: Baby Genius Burp Cloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting Yarn: Sugar ‘n Creme in Summer Splash and Hot Green Needles: Old funky aluminums, size 8 (need to use a smaller size next time. A 6, maybe.)

The Great Smoky Mountains from the lookout tower on the Foothills Parkway in Tennessee.

This is where I’ve been. Would you want to leave? I didn’t… even with my allergies wreaking havoc with my head.

This little guy looks cute enough to take home with you… until you realize how big he’s gonna get. I spent a fair bit of time before the trip reading two knitting books. The first is No Sheep for You by Amy R. Singer. Now, I probably won’t end up making anything from this book, pattern-wise*, but it’s a great read for those of us with animal fiber issues. I found confirmation for a lot of the things I’d suspected about different fibers and their uses. My favorite part of the book was the advice on how to test out different yarns to discover their suitability for an application. Some of it I knew, and some was brand new.

I’m more confident that I could figure out a non-animal-fiber substitute for any given pattern, now. That alone was worth the book’s price. And, who knows, if I get courage up to do a sweater, Morrigan looks like fun. But, not before I make Eris.

The other books I’ve been sticking my nose into for the past few weeks is Mason Dixon Knitting. I finally ordered it through my library after seeing Chris’ baby bib parade over at Stumbling Over Chaos. I know I’m years late to the party on this one, but these gals are funny. If you’ve been living under a rock (like I apparently have) go find this book somewhere and take a look. It’s filled with stuff I’ll get around to making eventually – most notably the baby stuff. No, I’m not having a baby.

* Just to be clear, the patterns in No Sheep for You are quite fetching. Just, not on me.

Today’s sky was blue and, to be perfectly honest, rather boring. So, I’m pulling this sky out of my archives for you all. This is Huntsville, Alabama, last March.

This has been a fun and eventful weekend. We all trucked out yesterday afternoon to a picnic with hubby’s co-workers. It was rather fun despite the drizzle. The kids played on a trampoline and got soaked… you know it’s a good time when they’re soaked through and don’t mind a bit. We brought some of our home brew, and it was well-received, so that was fun, too.

Also, today marked the end of the mini Jaywalkers! I’m so very happy to have these off the needles. It’s a lovely pattern, but not with splitty yarn. I think yarn with a longer color repeat would have looked better, as well. The zig-zags get somewhat lost with the Panda Cotton. They are a smidge too big for Tweedle-d’oh, but that means they’ll last more than a month. How do kids grow their feet and legs so fast?! I haven’t done a proper photo shoot, but did catch them this evening in their native environment… Tweedle-d’oh was watching Daddy play video games.

Started: 13 April 2007 Finished: 6 May 2007 Pattern: Grumperina’s Jaywalkers, modified to fit my 7-year-old’s foot. Yarn: Panda Cotton, in ‘Denim’. I find this yarn too splitty to be doing double decreases with every other row. It’s not too bad in plain stockinette, though. Needles: 4″ Addi dpns, size US 1

Thanks, everyone, for submitting names and voting in the Name that Brew poll. The winner was Knitter’s Solace. Since my darling hubby picked that name, the prize of stitch markers will go to the runner up, Heide of Serendipitous Opportuknitty, for her entry of “Ewe Brew”.*

We took the ale for a test drive last night. I was pleasantly surprised at the taste – not bad at all. What really gave me pause me was the difference priming with honey and corn sugar made in the final product. See the foamy head on the left? Honey. I have my theories about why, but y’all come here to knit and not hear me babble on about brewing.

The Mini Jaywalker #2 progresses…

In entirely unrelated news, I’ve decided to try my hand at dying the yellow yarn for my Hufflepuff socks for the Hogwarts Sock Swap. I’m terribly excited about the whole affair, and about using up some of the food paste dye that is languishing in my cake decorating kit. Anyone who wants to join in my adventure, there’s a great article about dyeing with food paste over at Knitty.

*When I told my husband this, he pouted and claimed that he could pierce his nose and use them as jewelry. I’m almost tempted to call his bluff.